The Untold Story of the Worlds Leading Environmental Institution by Maria Ivanova

The Untold Story of the Worlds Leading Environmental Institution by Maria Ivanova

Author:Maria Ivanova
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Environmental policy; United Nations Environment Programme; UNEP; global environmental governance; international cooperation; international organization; global environmental agreements; multilateral environmental agreements; sustainable development
Publisher: MIT Press


Kenya has continued to struggle with safety and security. Uhuru Kenyatta (referred to as Uhuru), the son of Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta, became the country’s fourth president in April 2013, and in September of that year, an attack at the upscale Westgate shopping mall claimed seventy-one lives, including sixty-two civilians.24 Attacks in the provinces followed, with bombings in Mpeketoni, Lamu County, and Garissa University in the northeast. In 2015, even though ICSC upgraded Kenya back to level B, the country ranked as the twenty-first most fragile state out of 178 countries as measured by the Fragile States Index.25 In January 2019, another attack shook the Kenyan capital when explosions and shootings occurred at a cluster of upmarket shops and hotels in the middle of the afternoon, leaving over twenty dead and forcing hundreds to flee. To this day, pervasive insecurity undermines Kenya’s stability and poses a threat to the safety and well-being of all.

Much of the insecurity traces back to what the Sunday Standard called “runaway corruption” that has become the norm and has resulted in the “plunder of a nation.”26 The scale and scope of corruption are mobilizing an increasing public outcry. “Greed and selfishness have become embedded into Kenya’s fabric,” Wanjira Mathai noted in her TED talk in 2019. “From greedy politicians lining their pockets at the public’s expense to shady business dealings, [corruption] is everywhere.”27 Kenya’s Auditor General, Edward Ouko, reported that one trillion Kenyan shillings, roughly the equivalent of $10 billion, is lost every year. This amounts to more than the Kenyan government’s annual expenditures on health and education combined and is the equivalent of the GDP of entire countries such as Chad or Madagascar.28 “Sh368 billion [$3.6 billion] of the Sh1 trillion [$10 billion] is spent without any accountability,” the Sunday Standard reported. “Not even the chief government gate keeper can keep tabs on the hemorrhage of public funds.”29 Rampant corruption has crippled Kenya under all four regimes. “Neither Jomo Kenyatta nor Daniel arap Moi nor Mwai Kibaki nor Uhuru Kenyatta,” states Joe Khamisi in his book, Kenya: Looters and Grabbers: 54 Years of Corruption and Plunder by the Elite, 1963–2017, “managed to extinguish the overwhelming fire of graft. Each one of the Kenyan presidents—together with their families and cronies—amassed enormous personal wealth through means which were not entirely lucid or honest.” They came from humble beginnings and used their positions of authority to acquire vast amounts of exclusive public land, build luxury residences and buy lavish cars, ransack treasuries, and stash funds in offshore accounts. Each administration, meanwhile, promoted a strong anti-corruption narrative. Kenyatta described corruption as an “enemy” and planned to deal with it. Moi established a range of institutions to fight corruption but all of them failed. Kibaki discussed the need of “slaying the dragon.” Uhuru contended that corruption was “the foremost danger facing the country.” It has, however, proven too big to handle.30

The promise of making UNEP more accessible for developing countries was one of the major reasons why developing



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